Adventures and Misadventures of a Science Fiction Writer

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Day 19 Drive Medicine Hat to Saskatoon

Cold this morning, around 1C. Last night’s wind and rain coated our freshly washed car with a layer of wet dirt. Still had most of a tank of gas, so off we went. Got lost in Medicine Hat because of a bridge closure, but just winged it until Lara picked a new route. Leaving town on highway 41, we were advised that there was no fuel for 126km. Didn’t worry, because we had enough fuel for at least twice that. An hour or two later, I started asking Lara where exactly the nearest gas station was, and for a while, she showed none within a hundred kilometers. We knew there would be some in Kindersley, so we kept going, and the fuel light didn’t come on until we were almost there, so we could have gone another hundred k. Turns out Lara doesn’t know Kindersley. After refuelling at one of the three or four gas stations, and picking up road rations at A&W, we sat on the service road with all the gas stations in sight, along with McDonalds, Subway, KFC and so on. Although Lara knew we were on the service road, she was blissfully unaware of any of the services, suggesting that if we wanted fuel or food, we should try Rosedale. If I was on Kindersley town council, I’d be having a word with NavTeq.

The temperature sat at 2C, plus or minus a degree until well into the afternoon. We saw a skiff of snow on the fields now and then, and one whole field full of snow geese and Canadas. Also a group of four antelope. We did take some pictures, but they just show cloudy skies and bare fields, so there is no Picture of the Day for today.

Arrived in Saskatoon around 1300, and the maid was just putting the finishing touches on our room. We have a suite with an outside entrance, so this will be the shortest baggage haul of the whole trip: across the sidewalk and through the door.

There will also be no Dinner Debriefing, since we went over to Caroline’s aunt and uncle’s place for dinner with Walter & Gwyn, Cliff & Kim, and Darryl. It was nice to eat with company for a change, it’s been just the two of us for weeks.

Tomorrow the plan is to drive to Brandon and look for Chinese food. I would have to feel very good before trying to make the run to Kenora non-stop, as it is ten hours or more.

It will be nip and tuck whether we total 10,000km on this trip or not. We were over 8000km before we crossed the Canadian border, and we are over 8800 now, on the home stretch with around a thousand more to go. Although we had an oil change and service just the week before we left, we are now overdue for one by about 3000k.